Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Wet and Dry

So if I had hopes that things would improve in January, I hoped in vain.

It is not anything major, and Lord knows that there are those who have been kicked around by Mom Nature in this state much more than us here on Grubb Street, but the reign of petty frustrations continues. It is sort of like getting paper cuts all over your body, then streaking through a lemon juice shower.

The weather continues to be flaky for the Pacific Northwest, as in the rest of the country, including the Eastern Midwest (sunny and warm) and the Western Midwest (buried under snow). We had a dusting of snow after Christmas, which would normally have siezed up the area were it not for the horrible storms earlier in the month. Then rain. Lots and lots of rain. Not Seattle rain, either, but Chicago rain - big heavy drops, applied continually. Low areas were flooded out (Including the main drag in Auburn, trapping me there after my regular check-up), and standing water everywhere as the soil and drainage systems were overloaded. Five inches since the New Year and its only the 3rd.

And due to this (maybe), the water main serving our collection of buildings in the lowlying area south of Bellevue cut out, leaving all but two buildings without water. Or more importantly, bathrooms. So there have been several long hikes over the day to the not-too-adjacent buildings which HAD water. Nothing critical, but still a royal irritation.

This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, nor with a wimper, but by being pecked to death by baby ducks.